GOP: Colleagues were warned informant’s Biden claims could not be corroborated

Source: The Hill | February 22, 2024 | Lauren Sforza

Republican: Colleagues were warned informant’s Biden claims could not be corroborated

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) revealed Wednesday that his Republican colleagues were previously warned that the former FBI informant’s claims at the center of the Hunter Biden probe could not be corroborated.

“We were warned at the time that we received the document outlining this witness’s testimony. … We were warned that the credibility of this statement was not known,” Buck said on CNN’s “The Source.”

“And yet, people, my colleagues went out and talk to the public about how this was credible and how it was damning and how it proved President Biden’s — at the time Vice President Biden’s — complicity in receiving bribes,” he added.

Alexander Smirnov was arrested and charged last week for making false statements to the FBI in connection to his testimony about the president’s son. He previously told the agency that President Biden and Hunter Biden received $5 million bribes from the head of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.

House Republicans have previously relied on Smirnov’s claims as a central part of their investigations into the Bidens. Buck said it is evident now that the information Smirnov relayed was false.

“It appears to absolutely be false, and to really undercut the nature of the charges. We’ve always been looking for a link between what Hunter Biden received in terms of money and Joe Biden’s activities or Joe Biden receiving money,” Buck explained. “This clearly is not a credible link at this point.”

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins then asked the Colorado Republican if House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) used the information “to fuel these investigations, regardless” of them knowing the information was not corroborated.

“That’s what it appears,” Buck responded. “I certainly didn’t have any evidence outside the statement itself that it was credible. And as a prosecutor for 25 years, Kaitlan, I never went to the public until I could prove the reliability of a statement.”

When asked if it was time to shut down the impeachment inquiry, Buck said he did not know.

“When all the evidence is given — and I don’t want to judge the evidence one way or the other until I have a chance to sit down with the investigators and go through the evidence. But this certainly undermines a lot if the — if the impeachment inquiry was based on this witness, it undermines the credibility of this impeachment,” he said.

“I will say that it’s suspicious that anybody would pay Hunter Biden as much money as they paid him without any expertise in the oil and gas industry without any expertise in international banking,” he continued. “So those things are suspicious, but again, there’s no link directly to Vice President Biden’s activities.”

Jordan and Comer have each brushed aside the indictment of Smirnov, with Jordan saying it “doesn’t change the fundamental facts” of the Republican case against the president.

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